You know what they say about best laid plans? In my life they are just something to get me to the place I'm supposed to be and then giggle about them.

I left my old home two weeks ago and once on the other side of the Cascades felt the delicious freedom of the open road and the ability to go anywhere. I woke up the next morning to snow covered mountains spreading out in the landscape behind me. What if I'd only looked ahead. The morning sunlight made everything glow and look fresh even though it was old. I walked into a coffee shop and was startled to see many young people in there because I'd just left a retirement community. The energy and creativity bit me like an old memory and it was tough to pull myself away from the place.

I didn't make it far down the road before something else stopped me and before long I was driving down country roads. Everything enchanted me - a fence, a sprinkler, a horse or a shlama, it didn't matter, I wanted to capture it all. It took me eight hours to do a 3 hour drive.

The next day, or maybe the one after that, my car began its demise. I saw it coming and quickly realized that we wouldn't be out on that open road looking for adventure in the near future. Just in case a back-up plan was needed, I began doing the footwork to look for a place back in the town I escaped from 25 years ago. If it didn't work out and I couldn't find the right place, it would be alright.

Feeling as if on a precarious edge, I got myself back to meetings where someone instantly recognized me from all of those years before. That was a scary thing but I kept going back and eventually the desire to escape drifted away but not too far. I realized that I knew nothing about life and living.

Finding the right place was easy. A large apartment in a funky old house in the town's downtown area where I could walk to the lake and everything else that I needed. But it took everything in my pocket to get into it and begin the process of starting over after selling or giving away everything. I'd barely gotten into the apartment with the bare necessities needed to get by when the car lost all of its differential oil. What a mess that made! I haven't driven in days.

My body has been hurting and I needed to get out and get more exercise in order to reverse it. Plus the pounds were accumulating. Except for bumming a ride to get plates and groceries, I've walked everywhere, some times covering five or six miles a day. Actually I walk to a trail in the woods where the spring wildflowers are blooming everywhere and a pair of Osprey are building their nest. I'm in photography heaven and have thousands of images to prove it.

At the moment I don't care much about the car. My body already feels better and the jeans are looser. My outlook on life has calmed down. And I feel lucky. So, my traveling plans are temporarily on hold and I'm making the best out of the situation. It is good to be back!